MOSCOW  Russian environmental groups called on the Hungarian government Wednesday to scrap plans to export spent nuclear fuel to Russia for reprocessing.

A letter of protest signed by more than 5,000 people in the Ural Mountains region of Chelyabinsk was sent to Hungary's Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany, asking him to not send used fuel to Russia, Vladimir Slivyak of the group EcoDefense said in a statement.

"Solving the problem of your own (nuclear) waste at the cost of lives of Russian people is a cynical policy, which, we hope, will be avoided by the new Hungarian government," Slivyak said.

Hungary imports fuel for its Paks nuclear power plant  the country's only plant  but does not have facilities for the long-term storage of spent fuel.